Nutrition & Natural Living

Month: September 2014

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Last summer my boyfriend and I plunged into the messy universe of Searching For A Clean, Green, Totally Nontoxic Mattress.

I am going to share a number of our discoveries, notes etc. just in case it may benefit another who is attempting to traverse this confusing, inhospitable landscape.

What Kind??? We Chose LATEX

We went to a natural bedding shop and tried a Savvy Rest with a wool topper and were sold on LATEX. I also read a number of articles on the process of making natural latex and it is very nontoxic. We have never experienced any allergic reaction to the rubber proteins, although I suppose it’s good to be aware of your own sensitivity before investing in a latex mattress.

Which Latex Mattress? What Weights of Latex?

I am 5′ 10″ and weigh about 230 pounds and boyfriend is 6′ 1″ and weighs about 210 pounds.

TOPPER “(wool) I think it might be a better product if it were precompressed mechanically and evenly.”

Flobeds

1 to 2

8.5 lbs

300.00

Sugal Loaf Wool

non organic cotton

350.00

Z Wool

non organic cotton

341.00

NoFeathersPlease

1.5

compressed

539.00

CozyPure

498.00

FoamOrder

2 to 3

doesn’t say its compressed evenly

430.00

WoolRest Biomag

looks compressed

with magnets!

379.00

Moss Envy

3 to 4

1 to 2 is 350

430.00

Organic And Healthy

1.50

319.00

Woolen Mill

350.00

The Clean Bedroom

.5″ thick

219.00

Shepherds Dream

PILLOW

Bean Products

buckwheat pillow

37.95

White Lotus

buck wool

sleeping with zip

72.00

SHEETS

White Lotus

organic jersey cotton sheets

243.00

COVER

CozyPure

ORGANIC

268.00

0.00

268.00

Amazon

ORGANIC

318.00

318.00

The Clean Bedroom

254.20

CLEARANCE OrganicMattressShop.com

not organic

50.00

50.00

CLEARANCE OrganicMattressShop.com

not organic

30.00

30.00

FOAM BY MAIL TERRY CLOTH

not organic

80.00

80.00

Mattress Safe

not organic

67.00

67.00

Heart of Vermont

not stretchy

organic

357.00

What happened next is I researched all the details of Latex Mattresses and found out:

1. SILICA ADDITIVES Some latex is made with silica, which is like small bits of sand that grate on the latex internally and could wear it out sooner than one that does not have this additive. This I found out from DIY Natural Bedding. Their Facebook postings I believe. Debora explained that Latex International adds silica…from my notes “Latex International talalay has fillers, they are chalk feldspar silica. Because of the additives they will break down sooner. The latex is in the mold 2/3 of the way, then they add 1/3 air. But with Dunlop they fill it all the way with latex. Dunlop holds up better. ”

“There is latex product you should be aware of that is technically natural but is not 96% natural latex. That is a latex made by Latex International who adds silica into their Talalay processed natural latex. Silica is natural, it is merely very finely ground sand. However, as a sleeper puts pressure on the latex, the silica acts like sandpaper against the rubber cells, rubbing them and destroying them; thus shortening the foam’s life. ”

Some additional Latex Manufacturing Info:

“The quality of our latex can be determined by its manufacturing procedures. Let me give you some names in case you like to be in the know. Most of our latex we get through Foam Order (www.foamorder.com) and some we get through LatexCo/Sleep Comp West. LatexCo pours their own latex, called Naturalux (http://www.latexco.com/usa/our-products/); Foam Order gets their latex cores, called Natural Sense, poured though Arpico or Richard Piers Natural Foams Ltd. (http://www.arpicolatexfoam.com/process/index.html). The link displays some pictures of the process used to turn the natural latex into a buoyant foam. The certification of natural latex as well as the VOC test results can be seen at this link. http://www.foamorder.com/certificate_natural_sense_foam.html Both companies source their raw latex from Sri Lanka. Foam Order’s latex through Arpico comes from the Kegalle Plantation and LatexCo pours their own natural latex. There are no rubber trees in the United States, particularly the Hevea Brasiliensis species that makes the latex for rubber. Our latex is intentionally Dunlop process; more on that in the next post.”

2. STRETCHY COVER The latex is super stretchy. A normal kind of mattress cover will not conform enough to give you all the comfort and benefits of the stretchy latex. It doesn’t make sense to pay for the comfort of latex and then use a cover and sheets that destroy that comfort. Therefore, the best cover, and sheets actually, will be of a stretchy material.

When we found DIY Natural Bedding we decided to get our latex pieces from them because she answered our questions so well.

Placing The Order – We Got All Our Latex Weights Wrong!

OK, so… I called and got some translations of ILDs for DIY Natural Bedding company:

Soft – 21-25
Medium – 26-30
Firm 31-35
Extra Firm 36-42
Hard 42-43

Remember we had decided we liked – from trying SavvyRest and looking online for the ILDs:

20-24 ILD
22-30 ILD
40+ ILD

So it made sense to get a Soft, Medium, and Firm – although I guess Extra Firm would have made more sense but I guess I thought – it will be way down there at the bottom what difference would it make?

We learned this the hard way. Because of our weight – over 200 lbs – we compressed the soft/medium/firm latex combo into a very VERY hard, horribly uncomfortable, sleeping surface.

You see, I was reading reviews from people of various weights and latex from various places.

I saw a couple who got latex from the foam factory:

top – 3″ 20 ILD
middle – 2″ 32 ILD
bottom – 6″ 36 ILD

They loved it. The husband weighs 230 and wife 95. I would think he would have a lot of trouble with it but if he sleeps on his side he would need it more cushy perhaps. Perhaps ILDs just don’t translate well between different manufacturers of latex? Here is the link to their story. And here is a link about problems with Foam by Mail – maybe The Foam Factory has similar issues or ordering pieces from big warehouses is just a tricky business.

Some Pics of our first latex order:

the latex arrived!

the latex is expanding after outer layers of heavy duty plastic were removed

We first set it up with the wool batting, later removed it

Mike adding a layer

We had to exchange some layers.

Vacuuming the air out of the latex in the plastic bag to pack for sending back

What we have now is great though (IMO).

We have our bed set up like this:

All is latex from DIY Natural Bedding.

My Side:

Top – Extra Firm
Middle – Extra Firm
Bottom – Firm

His Side:

Top – Extra Firm
Middle – Firm
Bottom – Extra Firm

We didn’t get a chance to try out Hard, because we used up our 60 days for making exchanges and this is comfortable enough.

Wool Batting – Did Not End Up Using

We ended up not adding the wool batting around the mattress (under the cover) because we move our layers around and don’t want to have to deal with the raw wool on top of the layers every time we rearrange them.

I created a big pillow with some wool batting. Wool batting compresses, and you have to fluff it frequently to get it to feel soft and fluffy – otherwise the pillow feels VERY hard.

Cover – I Wish We Got Quilted

We wish we had gotten the quilted cover. I was afraid it would not be stretchy enough. It probably is. We need more protection for the mattress.

So far I have not bought stretchy sheets, so we just sleep on the mattress cover – totally not ideal, it gets the cover dirty – but we are at least sleeping soundly and not breathing any horrible toxins from our mattress now.

Latex Has No Smell

The Latex itself is – as far as I can tell – scent free. There was never any smell or odor from these latex pieces. If you are sensitive to the rubber proteins, you may have some issues though.

Conclusion

I find the mattress to be supportive of my spine and comfortable. I wish it was more conforming, especially when I lie on my side. Overall I am happy with it. I’m glad I am not sleeping on any toxic materials or metal springs.

Boyfriend is not that happy though. 😦 He says he doesn’t like the feel of rubber. To quote, “I feel like I’m sleeping on a rubber band.” I think he wants it even more conforming and much more natural feeling. He thinks that things might feel more conforming and natural if we get some stretch cloth and sew a case for the wool we bought, and then add that as a topper, although we are concerned about the way wool compresses and becomes really hard feeling over not too long a time. We were thinking it would be interesting to get a whole bunch of millet or buckwheat hulls and make a topper out of that as well.

Wool and Horse Hair

The true ultimate ingredients for a natural bed are horse hair and wool. I did look long and hard for a wholesale source of horsehair that would be good to use for a mattress, but never found one.